How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory

Author : Roger Stephen Young, Texas Instruments
Publication Date : 2002
Last Updated : November 20, 2006

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Book Excerpts:

Computers are the most complex machines that have ever been created. Very few people really know how they work. This book will tell the reader how computers work and no technical knowledge is required. It explains the operation of a simple, but fully functional, computer in complete detail. The simple computer described consists mainly of a processor and main memory. Relays, which are explained, are used in the circuitry instead of transistors for simplicity. This book does not cover peripherals like modems, mice, disk drives, or monitors.

Ever wonder what a bit, a pixel, a latch, a word (of memory), a data bus, an address bus, a memory, a register, a processor, a timing diagram, a clock (of a processor), an instruction, or machine code is? Though most explanations of how computers work are a lot of analogies or require a background in electrical engineering, this book will teach the reader precisely what each of them is and how each of them works without requiring any previous knowledge of computers or electronics. However, this book starts out very easy and gets harder as it goes along. The recommendation is to read the book starting at the first page and not skip around because later topics depend on understanding earlier topics. How far the reader can get may depend on his/her background. A junior high school science background should be enough. There is no mathematics required other than simple addition and multiplication.

This is a short book, but it must be studied carefully. This means that the reader will have to read some parts more than once to understand them. The reader will acquire more knowledge about how computers work at the end of this book than at the beginning, even if he/she is not able to get through the whole text. This is a technical book though it is aimed at a non-technical audience. Though this book takes considerable effort to understand, it is very easy for what it explains. This book will seem simple at the second reading.

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